A variety of driver assistance systems, which should regulate the speed of a motor vehicle and may thus support the driver in certain driving situations, are known. Such driver assistance systems use a cruise control device for implementing cruise control functions, such a device being suitably triggered to adjust the actual speed of the motor vehicle, by regulating it to the setpoint speed, based on a setpoint speed of the motor vehicle to be predefined and actual variables to be measured, for example, an engine of the motor vehicle or brakes of the motor vehicle.
Driver assistance systems have been developed for use in road traffic, for example. Such driver assistance systems typically regulate the speed of the motor vehicle in higher speed ranges. Driver assistance systems have been developed, which specifically take into account the requirements for driving off-road. Such driver assistance systems are typically configured for speed control in low speed ranges.
To influence the actual speed of the motor vehicle, a cruise control device may make use of various actuators, i.e., controllers. Patent documents DE 4 439 424 C1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,078,859, for example, discuss cruise control functions in which a drive actuator is triggered for regulating the speed of the motor vehicle. Patent document EP 0 992 412 B1 discusses a cruise control function, which triggers only one brake actuator, for example, to influence a vehicle speed during a downhill drive. Patent document WO 2004/007230 A1 discusses a method for controlling the speed of a vehicle, in which both a drive actuator and a brake actuator are triggered. Several cruise control functions, which have been adapted and/or combined specifically for off-road use, are discussed in Gen Inoue et al.: Development of Crawl Control, SAE Technical Paper Series 2008-01-1227 (ISBN 978-0-7680-1631-4), 2008 World Congress, Detroit, Mich., Apr. 14-17, 2008. Depending on the use range of the respective cruise control functions and the actuators triggered, a driver is at least partially relieved of work on the gas pedal and/or brake pedal in certain driving situations and is able to concentrate better on steering the motor vehicle.